If you were anywhere near Tampa Avenue on Saturday morning, you might’ve thought a small army in yellow had taken over the Valley.
In a way, they had.
Nearly 100 volunteers — moms, dads, students, retirees, service club regulars — all walking the nine-mile stretch from Rinaldi to Ventura Boulevard with grabbers in hand and smiles on their faces.
Two hours. That’s all it took for Volunteers Cleaning Communities (VCC) to turn one of the Valley’s busiest corridors into something the community could be proud of again.
The day began the way all good neighborhood efforts do: with donuts, friendly greetings, and the kind of local banter you only hear when people show up for something bigger than themselves.
At three check-in stations along Tampa, longtime VCC volunteers handed out souvenir T-shirts, pick up equipment, and street assignments with military precision and grandmotherly kindness. Soon, teams from CSUN, Granada Hills, VCC volunteers, Chatsworth Kiwanis, Shepherd Church, Our Lady of Grace, Rotary, and plenty of solo residents were fanning out — bending, grabbing, hauling, and laughing as they worked. If you slowed your car long enough, you could feel the pride. And so many cars honked their horns to acknowledge the appreciated efforts of the groups.
When the dust settled — or rather, when the trash was bagged — the numbers told their own story: 207 large bags filled, more than 30 illegal dump sites reported, and one long stretch of Tampa looking the best it has in a long time.
VCC with hundreds of volunteers has marched down many Valley streets before — Ventura, Topanga, Nordhoff, DeSoto — and each time the crowds grow a little bigger, the friendships a little deeper. They’ll be back again in April for Earth Month. And if you ask the folks in those yellow shirts, they’ll tell you it’s not just about cleaning a street. It’s about cleaning up a community, one block — and one good conversation — at a time. Come join them and volunteer for an event. For more information visit www.vcc.world.
